Still in doubt about whether your recruiting software has to interface with LinkedIn and other social media engines? Still wondering, in other words, if social media recruiting is right for your staffing agency? Check out these numbers:

89% of American companies use social media for recruiting.

82% use LinkedIn.

50% use Facebook.

45% use Twitter.

64% use more than one social media network.

64% of those companies report that they’ve hired through social media in the past year.

55% of those companies plan to invest even more time and money into social media recruiting.

82% of American job seekers use social networks in their job search.

35% use LinkedIn.

75% use Facebook.

40% use Twitter.

A few comments are in order.

The first is (I hope) obvious: being social media savvy is a must for staffing and recruiting professionals. Your competition is out there, candidates are out there, people in your network are out there, so you have to be there. Often – as in every day.

The second is also obvious: networking is still the #1 way to find good candidates. And social media is a superb tool for networking. Lunches, phone calls, coffee meetings, trade shows, and all of the other old networking tools are still important and, to some extent, irreplaceable. But social media is, I would say, the most important networking tool in your arsenal.

The last point: note the discrepancies between companies and users when it comes to Facebook and LinkedIn. To me, it seems as if companies are investing heavily in LinkedIn while the candidates are spending a lot more time on Facebook. Isn’t recruiting via Facebook an opportunity that isn’t being used as much as it can?

If you have a good answer to that last question, please leave a comment below. In the meantime, make sure that your staffing and recruiting software is hooked up to social media!